


Patience

by BuckinghamAlice



Series: The Genius and The Gentleman [1]
Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, I suck at this tagging business, M/M, Temporarily Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-05
Updated: 2013-08-05
Packaged: 2017-12-22 11:56:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/912924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuckinghamAlice/pseuds/BuckinghamAlice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve tries to find out who it is that Tony has feelings for and isn't prepared to deal with the fact that it's him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Patience

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place after the events of the Avengers Assemble episode "Super Adaptoid" (the one with all the stony), although it isn't strictly necessary that you've seen that to follow this story. But if you're a stony shipper, trust me, you need to be watching that show. =P

“You see, Tony, it was actually quite simple,” Steve said with a smile, after he had finished explaining to a rapt Tony how he had memorized all the team members’ fighting styles and used that knowledge in their latest battle. Tony shook his head and grinned. “Well, damn. Brilliant in its simplicity. I hate you for that.”

Steve laughed once, but it turned into a yawn. He quickly clapped his hand over his mouth and stretched and straightened in his seat, seeming to grow several inches taller as he did so. Tony definitely noticed. “You’re tired,” Tony commented. “You can go to bed… you’re off duty for the day, Cap.”

Steve laughed once more and stood up. He went and poured himself a cup of coffee and shook his head. “I’m fine. It’s too early for bed,” he said. “I feel like this conversation should be the other way around… I know you’re going to be in your lab the minute I duck out of here and that’s where we’ll find you in the morning.”

Tony gave his friend a cheeky grin. “Is this the part where you try and give me a bed time? Remember, Cap, I make the rules this time around.”

Steve shook his head and smiled. “Even if I was of a mind to go around giving orders I know better than to expect you to fall in line with them.” He sat down in a barstool behind the counter and sipped his coffee. He swiveled back around to face Tony and gave him another little smile.

Tony stood and walked up next to Steve and raised an eyebrow at him. “You know, there is something very important I’ve been needing to discuss with you,” Tony said seriously. Steve furrowed his brows and nodded. “All right… what’s that?”

“Well,” Tony began, gingerly reaching past Steve and picking up the magazine he had tried to hide underneath his tablet, “I see you have this latest issue of Futura Magazine… now, it’s very important that you tell me which picture of me was your favorite. I’m partial to the one on page 25. That’s the one where I give the camera my ‘come and get it if you can’ look.”

Steve laughed. “I didn’t… I don’t care about your pictures. I swear I read this magazine for the articles.” Tony laughed and raised his eyebrows. “Wow. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you meant that to be a bit suggestive.”

Steve rolled his eyes but gave Tony a lopsided grin. “Pepper must have the patience of a saint to put up with you.” The smile fell from Tony’s face and he gave an exaggerated nod. “Oh, yeah… I guess I didn’t tell you. That’s not… we aren’t really… Pepper and I split up.”

“Oh,” Steve said, furrowing his brows again and biting his lower lip from the regret at what he had thought was just a simple (and appropriate) joke. “I’m sorry… I didn’t know. Are you… are you okay?”

“Oh, yeah, yeah,” Tony said, nodding and waving his hand dismissively. “It was almost two months ago. I’m fine now.”

Steve nodded. “I see. What happened? And why didn’t you tell me? You could have, you know.”

“I know,” Tony said. “It just… it wasn’t important. What happened wasn’t important. Don’t worry about it.” Then, the smile returning to his lips, he added, “I was able to handle that one without your help, Cap.”

Steve gave Tony a soft smile and cocked his head slightly. He placed a gentle hand on Tony’s shoulder and said, “You’re avoiding answering me. Did you do something? Level with me.” Tony wriggled away from Steve’s touch and avoided making eye contact. “I didn’t screw up this time. Really. But it isn’t important.”

Steve raised an eyebrow and studied his friend for a moment. “Right. Completely unimportant. That’s why you’re so reluctant to tell me about it.”

“She said that… well, she thought that I wasn’t really in love with her,” Tony said, shrugging as if this was an unimportant as deciding between grape jam or strawberry for his morning toast. “She sort of thought I was in love with… someone else.”

Steve’s brows furrowed. “She thinks you were cheating on her? Well, she should have known better than that…” Tony waived a hand and interrupted him. “No, she never said she thought I was cheating. She just said it seemed like I had feelings for this other person and she felt like she would always come second.”

“Well, that’s ridiculous,” Steve said evenly, observing how Tony squirmed slightly. “Isn’t it?”

Tony avoided making eye contact. “Well… she wasn’t completely off base…”

Steve’s eyes widened a bit. He choked out an awkward laugh. “ _Really_? Who?” Tony bit his lip and continued to avoid eye contact. Steve smiled and poked him once in the rib and asked again, “Who, Tony?” Tony smiled and slapped at Steve’s hand. “Stop it.”

Steve grinned and poked him a couple more times before running his finger up his side, tickling him slightly. “Tony likes someone and Tony better tell me…” he said in an almost singsong voice. Tony laughed. “Stop, Steve.”

Steve tickled both his sides and said, “Say it, Tony.” And without saying a word, Tony grabbed both of Steve’s wrists and smashed his face against his for a kiss. Their first kiss.

Their first, ill-advised, awkward kiss.

Steve initially responded to the kiss instinctively. He pulled Tony slightly closer and kissed him back. But after a second, just a second, he snapped back to reality. He pulled away and pulled his hands from Tony’s grip, as gently but purposefully as he could. He dropped his gaze and bit his lip.

“Oh,” Tony said, backing up. _Shit shit shit_ , he thought. Wrong, all wrong. He had kissed his friend and it was… a mistake, apparently. How could he have misread the moment? It felt like he would never have a better opening than that… and even that had been wrong.

Steve ventured a glance back at him and Tony stepped back again. He didn’t like that look on Steve’s face… something like pity. His stomach lurched from embarrassment and indignation. “I’m going to go get some work done in the lab,” he muttered. He turned away and walked to the doorway. “Sorry,” he mumbled, back to Steve, just before he rushed out the door.

Steve kicked himself as he watched his friend go. He couldn’t even think a complete, coherent thought. How could Tony think…? Why did that just…? Should he have…?

_Why didn’t he say something_? he finally asked himself. If Pepper was right… if Tony really had these feelings for him, why hadn’t Tony said something sooner? And when Tony kissed him, why did he just let him walk away and not say _something_? He had clearly hurt Tony by not responding to the kiss and not saying anything after he pulled away.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. That bit about not responding to the kiss, at any rate. When Tony first kissed him, he had… liked it, hadn’t he? He checked his pulse, and yep, it was still elevated. It had been a good kiss, if he was being objective. _Very_ good, in fact. Maybe… maybe he had been too hasty in breaking away. He was just sort of shocked. He had never thought about Tony in that way.

Well, not _never_ , exactly. He remembered this time when he had really looked at Tony, not long after they had met. It was the first time he ever really noticed how handsome his friend was. But he hadn’t been ogling him or looking at him in a sexual way at all. It was a simple observation. Then there was the time that he had been watching Tony very closely because he noticed that his friend had nice lips. He had been so busy looking at Tony’s lips that he later had no idea what he had actually said.

And of course, if he was being totally honest, he had noticed just a few hours ago, as he and Tony were walking down the hallway together that Tony’s t-shirt was clinging slightly to his abs, which were wet still a little wet from the shower. And…

Wow.

He took another sip of his coffee and was genuinely surprised that it wasn’t ice cold. It felt as if he had been sitting there for hours, but, no. It hadn’t been long at all. Just long enough for him to realize that he had messed up this time.

Tony was in his lab sometime later, trying to tell himself he was working while he was, in reality, stewing over what happened with Steve as he tinkered with the settings on another prototype suit of armor. He wondered how long things would be awkward between the two of them, and if there was any excuse or joke he could make to ease the tension that was bound to arise.

“Dammit,” he grunted, tossing a screwdriver at the wall. Steve appeared in the doorway just then and picked up the screwdriver, offering a tentative smile. “You dropped this,” he said, striding over to Tony and handing him the wayward tool.

Silently, Tony took it from him and turned away again.

“Tony, I think we should talk,” Steve began. Tony cut his eyes over to his friend and sighed. “No need. I was joking before,” he began. “That kiss. It was just a joke… to get you to leave me alone. That’s all.”

Steve nodded. “Oh. Well… that’s… a pity.”

Tony raised an eyebrow. “Rogers, what are you…” But Steve raised his hand to cut him off. “I think you should just listen to me for a moment, because I have something I’d really like to tell you.”

Screwdriver in hand, Tony nodded, but went back to trying to look like he was diligently tinkering. “I’m all ears.” Steve sighed and simply said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t react right earlier, and I’d like another chance.”

Tony furrowed his brows and looked up at Steve, but before he could make the smartass remark that was forming on his lips, Steve leaned in a gently pressed a kiss to his mouth. Their second kiss.

Their second, much improved, kiss.

Steve pulled Tony close to him and Tony slipped his arms around Steve’s neck, dropping the screwdriver to the floor. He sighed slightly as his lips parted and allowed Steve’s tongue entrance to his mouth. Then slowly, their lips parted and Tony held onto him, his eyes still closed, dark lashes brushing his cheeks.

Steve slouched a bit to put his forehead against Tony’s. “You should know,” he began, “that I actually _do_ have the patience of a saint.”

Tony laughed and his eyes fluttered open to gaze into the brilliant blue ones that were fixed on him. “I was worried that you were mad at me…”

“I was a little scared,” Steve said. “I’ve never really thought about being with… a guy. I just never saw myself in that way. Not that there’s anything wrong with it… it just wasn’t something I saw in myself. But I don’t know… if I’m being totally honest, I guess I’ve always wanted you, even if I didn’t admit it to myself until now.” He ran his hand up Tony’s chest and let it rest gently over the arc reactor.

“Better now than never,” Tony said with a devilish grin, squeezing Steve a little tighter.

They spent the night in the laboratory, and Tony discovered that Steve really did have the patience of a saint… and Steve decided that, of all the people he knew, Tony made the best use of that particular virtue. But it was worth it. Very worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Marvel fic and my first time writing these two. I based their personalities mostly off of the Avengers Assemble cartoon, so I hope that they don't seem off. Please let me know what you think. If people like this one, I may venture into smutty territory with these two. =)


End file.
